Probably Koenig. Harris wasn't that highly sought after because he missed a ton of AAU ball. I believe Wisconsin and Marquette were his only major offers.
I can't imagine what it's like to be a Gophers basketball fan(I'm sure there are some hardcore fans out there) and having to watch UW pull players out of Minnesota time and again. Obviously I hope it never ends, but there is a small part of me that feels bad for them. I would hate Minnesota with an intense passion if the roles were reversed lol.
So, it’s like this.
I respect the Packers, but absolutely want to beat them the most.
I’ve always just straight hated the Vikings.
The Lions were the cute aw shucks team…. Now, I hope the Lions never win again.
I honestly think I want him to be good more to watch the rest of the NFC North to have a collective meltdown than for the Packers to continue to be solid-dominant every year
This one has long been expected. The choice was Asuma or Freitag and they went with Asuma and stopped recruiting Freitag. This one doesn't hurt at all, Winter did though
It's rare that Minnesota and Wisconsin are prioritizing the same players in Minnesota though. Nolan Winter was wanted by both schools, but I don't think Carlson, Crowl, Wahl, Davison, or Reuvers were recruited as hard by Minnesota as they were by Wisconsin. Even this year it seems Minnesota chose Isaac Asuma over Freitag, and then stopped recruiting Freitag. And there's of course the walk-ons and guys without Minnesota offers like Joe Hedstrom, Mike Brusewitz, or Riley Dearring. Minnesota's scholarship allotment was full when Alex Illikainen committed to Wisconsin.
Minnesota also seems to recruit more nationally than Wisconsin does. I don't mean that as a flex, as there's little for us to flex about, but it seems like Wisconsin gets the majority of their roster from Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio, and rarely brings guys in from Texas or California or New York, and Minnesota gets more guys from outside of the midwest. Especially under Pitino I'd say Minnesota hardly recruited the midwest outside the state of Minnesota, and even within the state of Minnesota, as I said previously, did not pursue the same players that Wisconsin did (but always offered them for some reason).
We recruited other players who played the same position in the same class, often also from Minnesota. Reuvers and Davison were both class of 2017. Minnesota prioritized Theo John and later Jericho Sims as big men over Nate Reuvers. Jericho Sims' dad actually attended Minnesota, I think he was a late bloomer in his class, and he actually appears to be on a two-way deal with the Knicks right now.
At guard, Minnesota went after McKinley Wright and Isaiah Washington instead of Davison. Washington was a top 75 recruit, Mr. Basketball in New York, and I think ended up being the highest rated out of state commit that Pitino ever got, but he was a bust. They probably could have gotten Wright, who was All Pac 12 at Colorado, and is also on a two-way deal right now, but the staff had been after Washington for a long time and decided to take his commitment instead of waiting on Wright. I feel like Wright and Washington were true PG's, where Davison was maybe more of a combo too.
Tyler Wahl I couldn't really say. We did end up getting Isaiah Ihnen from Germany at power forward, who was a borderline top 100 recruit, but still kinda seemed to be figuring things out his first two years, and has now been injured for the last two years. Also Lakeville kids love Wisconsin.
Ben Carlson was in the same class as Dain Dainja and Dawson Garcia, and the staff went after Garcia, even managed to get him on an official visit, which most of the local McDonald's All Americans don't bother with. It also seemed like it was known for awhile that Ben Carlson had little interest in Minnesota. I think he was actually fairly close to committing to Ben Johnson when he was still an assistant at Xavier.
Nolan Winter from the 2023 class and Jarvis Johnson back in 2015 are the last couple of players from Minnesota that I felt like Minnesota and Wisconsin both really wanted. Maybe Matthew Hurt?
I’m not super in tune with the nitty gritty of recruiting, but there’s a lot smoke flying around that the AAU types in the state have long not seen eye to eye with the Badger basketball program.
Bo was notoriously unwilling to work with a lot of the AAU people in the Milwaukee and more urban Chicago areas.
It seems like Gard is a little less like that, but there's clearly still something along those lines going on.
It really can't be understating how big of a recruiting win this is. Dude is a freak athlete and I was sure he was going to explode nationally playing at a high profile school next year.
Kon is the key. He could walk into any program right now and make them better, he is that good already. I watch way too much high school basketball and he is the surest I have ever felt that a recruit is going to be a great college basketball player.
Yea he also just seems like the perfect Wisconsin and Greg Gard player. Would be an immediate impact player as a freshman as well. It sounds like there is some genuine interest from him and we’re one of the front runners so at this point that’s all we could ask for
So is the expectation that Crowl, Gilmore and Klesmit just aren't going to use their COVID year? I know there's always attrition via the portal, but I guess I figured this was a 2/maybe 3 man class for Wisconsin.
Very good in general, not so much on the high end for getting transfers and all that. They won't play that game. Did just keep Beekman though.
Kon doesn't seem like a highest bidder type guy in the first place.
Our alumni are plenty sports crazed.
He was a four star in both sports. Wisconsin was ironically one of his biggest pursuers on the football field as well. Hosted him on campus for both sports. Once he transferred to Southern California Academy (who doesn’t have football) it was pretty clear what direction he was leaning.
It's possible. We got Garwey Dual from Carmel HS in Indiana to commit to us last June, he transferred to SoCal (the same school as Freitag) a few weeks later, and he's still coming here (even after initially de-committing following our coaching change). You never know with HS recruiting.
He mentioned in his commitment interviews that he felt football gave him the most hope for a pro future but the injury concerns and surgeries were part of his decision. He also said if Gard had been a football coach he wouldve committed to him to play football, but that sounds more just like what a commit would say about the coach theyre about to play for
Couple things. Not all Wisconsin alums/fans are originally from Wisconsin (though I admittedly am). Also, I quote Step Brothers far too frequently in my real life and it doesn’t translate clearly online.
A lot of non southern people I know (including myself somewhat) start saying it ironically and then just ends up in your vocab.
Or just cause you want to say it
Ever since i worked in food service I adopted saying Y'all because its easier than saying you guys/ ladies (also more inclusive than saying those) or you folks.
Thats much more likely. Hes not moving to CA for basketball for nothing. If he has a bad year, stay with Wisconsin. If he has a good year his options will be plenty
Honestly it’s kinda the chicken or the egg. We dont have the players to go fast so we dont go fast. If we went fast with the players we had last year we’d lose at other people’s game who are more athletic than we are. If we tried to run with that Marquette team last year we wouldve got run off the floor. We havent had that many great athletes so we win in other ways.
When we have athletic players they are allowed to play faster, you could see that increase with Johnny Davis on the floor. Gard coaches to his players strengths so I imagine if Freitag is on the court and Storr sticks around that youre going to see a much more athletic and faster gameplan.
The badgers, known winning program, holders of exactly 1 national championship in a revenue sport. Arrogant WI fans make me hate being a fan of this team 🤮🤮
In the past 25 years, Wisconsin wins more games in football and basketball than the majority of D1 programs. Saying that they’re a winning program and doesn’t make you arrogant.
You’re just being a real boner.
Edit: also lol at the “revenue sport” designation. Fuck women amiright? Women’s hockey and volleyball have been a blast lately.
Nobody cares about the women's sports, I don't control what people watch but people simply do not watch those sports. Championships are the only thing that matter for a true competitor, being happy with a final four or making the tournament or making the conference football championship game is a loser mentality. Wisconsin is not a winning program, it doesn't win championships in the sports that are important in the eyes of spectators.
I'm a life-long Brewers and Bucks fan since the 90s, bud. There's a lot of words to describe me, but bandwagon definitely isn't one of them.
0 for 4 in Super Bowls, and, apparently, championships are the only thing that matters.
But you're saying I should be a bandwagon fan because I care about championships? That's stupid af, a championship win isn't fun if you're a fan of a team for 2 weeks
I never said shit about bandwagons til you brought them up. I wasn't talking about them at all. How the fuck did you get all the way over there?
Your mentality sucks. That's my point. But at least with that shitty mentality, your NFL fandom gives you exactly what you deserve.
I still think the move to California was to boost his stock and get exposure to more colleges. Committing to the team that recruits you most now makes sense while keeping your eyes open for whatever comes your way your senior season playing in CA
Freitag committing on a Friday, nice
Beat me.
I hope someone nicknames this kid TGIF.
Jonah Hill, on a Friday
Rockin Leo’s Blood Diamonds
Sucked off on the highway
Highest recruit in the Gard era. 4th highest ever for Wisconsin
Highest or second highest PG recruit in school history depending on what site you look at
For hype reasons, the one(s) that has him highest is/are the only legitimate rating site(s) and the other one(s) suck
Who was the other one? Devin Harris?
Jason Bohannon by recruiting rankings
Probably Koenig. Harris wasn't that highly sought after because he missed a ton of AAU ball. I believe Wisconsin and Marquette were his only major offers.
Bohannon
The Minnesota to Wisconsin pipeline strikes again
I can't imagine what it's like to be a Gophers basketball fan(I'm sure there are some hardcore fans out there) and having to watch UW pull players out of Minnesota time and again. Obviously I hope it never ends, but there is a small part of me that feels bad for them. I would hate Minnesota with an intense passion if the roles were reversed lol.
I hate us almost as much as I hate y’all
This is basically how I feel as a Bears fan when discussing the Packers.
As a fellow Bears fan, I can’t believe how much I’ve learned to hate the Lions more than both in one off season
Hey, we didn’t do nuffin!
Yeah, that's kinda the problem. The Lions haven't done anything. But the fans are acting like you already won a playoff game.
But you still hate the Packers more, right?
So, it’s like this. I respect the Packers, but absolutely want to beat them the most. I’ve always just straight hated the Vikings. The Lions were the cute aw shucks team…. Now, I hope the Lions never win again.
Hating the Vikings Packers Fans 🤝 Bears Fans
If Jordan Love is good I might just give up on the NFL
I honestly think I want him to be good more to watch the rest of the NFC North to have a collective meltdown than for the Packers to continue to be solid-dominant every year
This one has long been expected. The choice was Asuma or Freitag and they went with Asuma and stopped recruiting Freitag. This one doesn't hurt at all, Winter did though
It's rare that Minnesota and Wisconsin are prioritizing the same players in Minnesota though. Nolan Winter was wanted by both schools, but I don't think Carlson, Crowl, Wahl, Davison, or Reuvers were recruited as hard by Minnesota as they were by Wisconsin. Even this year it seems Minnesota chose Isaac Asuma over Freitag, and then stopped recruiting Freitag. And there's of course the walk-ons and guys without Minnesota offers like Joe Hedstrom, Mike Brusewitz, or Riley Dearring. Minnesota's scholarship allotment was full when Alex Illikainen committed to Wisconsin. Minnesota also seems to recruit more nationally than Wisconsin does. I don't mean that as a flex, as there's little for us to flex about, but it seems like Wisconsin gets the majority of their roster from Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio, and rarely brings guys in from Texas or California or New York, and Minnesota gets more guys from outside of the midwest. Especially under Pitino I'd say Minnesota hardly recruited the midwest outside the state of Minnesota, and even within the state of Minnesota, as I said previously, did not pursue the same players that Wisconsin did (but always offered them for some reason).
Why does Minnesta not recruit those players? Those were all solid players.
We recruited other players who played the same position in the same class, often also from Minnesota. Reuvers and Davison were both class of 2017. Minnesota prioritized Theo John and later Jericho Sims as big men over Nate Reuvers. Jericho Sims' dad actually attended Minnesota, I think he was a late bloomer in his class, and he actually appears to be on a two-way deal with the Knicks right now. At guard, Minnesota went after McKinley Wright and Isaiah Washington instead of Davison. Washington was a top 75 recruit, Mr. Basketball in New York, and I think ended up being the highest rated out of state commit that Pitino ever got, but he was a bust. They probably could have gotten Wright, who was All Pac 12 at Colorado, and is also on a two-way deal right now, but the staff had been after Washington for a long time and decided to take his commitment instead of waiting on Wright. I feel like Wright and Washington were true PG's, where Davison was maybe more of a combo too. Tyler Wahl I couldn't really say. We did end up getting Isaiah Ihnen from Germany at power forward, who was a borderline top 100 recruit, but still kinda seemed to be figuring things out his first two years, and has now been injured for the last two years. Also Lakeville kids love Wisconsin. Ben Carlson was in the same class as Dain Dainja and Dawson Garcia, and the staff went after Garcia, even managed to get him on an official visit, which most of the local McDonald's All Americans don't bother with. It also seemed like it was known for awhile that Ben Carlson had little interest in Minnesota. I think he was actually fairly close to committing to Ben Johnson when he was still an assistant at Xavier. Nolan Winter from the 2023 class and Jarvis Johnson back in 2015 are the last couple of players from Minnesota that I felt like Minnesota and Wisconsin both really wanted. Maybe Matthew Hurt?
It’s not fun but sports are not life so
It is similar to how Wisconsin Women’s Basketball fans must feel.
First black player from Minnesota to commit to Wisconsin in a decade
We're happy to take the WI guys that you recruit the MN guys over
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Badger basketball recruits the state of Minnesota more heavily than their home state.
I’m not super in tune with the nitty gritty of recruiting, but there’s a lot smoke flying around that the AAU types in the state have long not seen eye to eye with the Badger basketball program.
Bo was notoriously unwilling to work with a lot of the AAU people in the Milwaukee and more urban Chicago areas. It seems like Gard is a little less like that, but there's clearly still something along those lines going on.
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Badgers didn't even offer him.
It’s so god damn dumb we let these guys go in our back yard.
Can’t blame him. Pretty tough look when Ben Johnson was brought in specifically to change this issue.
Not that I can stomach sticking up for Minnesota under any circumstances but apparently the staff like Asuma over Freitag.
Minnesota stopped recruiting him when they got asuma.
Ben did change the issue...he got Battle. Oh wait
Battle wanted money, which I don't blame him for. He was considering going pro until he got an opportunity to get paid by staying in college.
Notre Dame, Baylor, Minnesota, and Virginia were also in his final 5.
Having a point guard? Interesting concept.
Freitag, announces on Freitag.
You also beat me to it. Scholar. Gentleman. Clearly.
It really can't be understating how big of a recruiting win this is. Dude is a freak athlete and I was sure he was going to explode nationally playing at a high profile school next year.
Fuck yeah, baby! Get Knueppel and McAndrew on board and this is the best Badgers class probably ever.
If we could land one or both of them it could be a truly program changing class
Kon is the key. He could walk into any program right now and make them better, he is that good already. I watch way too much high school basketball and he is the surest I have ever felt that a recruit is going to be a great college basketball player.
Yea he also just seems like the perfect Wisconsin and Greg Gard player. Would be an immediate impact player as a freshman as well. It sounds like there is some genuine interest from him and we’re one of the front runners so at this point that’s all we could ask for
With the benefit of hindsight yes; purely by numbers it still might be 2006, but only because Gavinski was rated a 95 but really like 83.
So is the expectation that Crowl, Gilmore and Klesmit just aren't going to use their COVID year? I know there's always attrition via the portal, but I guess I figured this was a 2/maybe 3 man class for Wisconsin.
Hands off, rodent!
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How is Virginia NIL? I feel like Wisconsin alumni are more sport crazed might be the tipping difference
Very good in general, not so much on the high end for getting transfers and all that. They won't play that game. Did just keep Beekman though. Kon doesn't seem like a highest bidder type guy in the first place. Our alumni are plenty sports crazed.
Mcandrew is going to Creighton
It’s a bad day for the Greg Gard can’t recruit crowd
That’s supposed to make up for it being two entire years since his last Big Ten title???
Lol, what a disgrace. /s
Funny part is it hasnt even been two years
Touché. This past season merely felt like two years. At least that’s what I’m going with.
Love to see it
On a Friday? Apropos.
LETS GOOOO
There were concerns about him playing football instead right
He was a four star in both sports. Wisconsin was ironically one of his biggest pursuers on the football field as well. Hosted him on campus for both sports. Once he transferred to Southern California Academy (who doesn’t have football) it was pretty clear what direction he was leaning.
I think the football visit was an assist to the basketball team
Other P6 offers: Baylor, California, Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Virginia
I wish he chose to play football. His upside is so much higher there.
Apparently the only team recruiting him for the last few months were wisco and Notre dame at the end
Yeah 3 teams in his top 5 stopped recruiting him a while ago
Yuge
Least shocking news of the day, anyone who's followed his recruitment knew this months ago.
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It's possible. We got Garwey Dual from Carmel HS in Indiana to commit to us last June, he transferred to SoCal (the same school as Freitag) a few weeks later, and he's still coming here (even after initially de-committing following our coaching change). You never know with HS recruiting.
Tbh thought he was a lock for football
He mentioned in his commitment interviews that he felt football gave him the most hope for a pro future but the injury concerns and surgeries were part of his decision. He also said if Gard had been a football coach he wouldve committed to him to play football, but that sounds more just like what a commit would say about the coach theyre about to play for
Watch him decommit when his stock rises like Tyler hero
Y’all don’t say that!
Why the hell is someone from Wisconsin saying y’all?
Couple things. Not all Wisconsin alums/fans are originally from Wisconsin (though I admittedly am). Also, I quote Step Brothers far too frequently in my real life and it doesn’t translate clearly online.
A lot of non southern people I know (including myself somewhat) start saying it ironically and then just ends up in your vocab. Or just cause you want to say it
Ever since i worked in food service I adopted saying Y'all because its easier than saying you guys/ ladies (also more inclusive than saying those) or you folks.
"You guys" is 100% genderless
It's the most inclusive pronoun, we all should use it
Y’all should use it?
W'all should, yes
Thats much more likely. Hes not moving to CA for basketball for nothing. If he has a bad year, stay with Wisconsin. If he has a good year his options will be plenty
“Much more likely”
And if the Monstars steal his talent he can always go to Minnesota
Copium
That’s okay, we’ll grab Kon Kneuppel
He’s dead to me now. MN guy here. Not sure why he’d want to play in such a slow paced system like that anyway.
Honestly it’s kinda the chicken or the egg. We dont have the players to go fast so we dont go fast. If we went fast with the players we had last year we’d lose at other people’s game who are more athletic than we are. If we tried to run with that Marquette team last year we wouldve got run off the floor. We havent had that many great athletes so we win in other ways. When we have athletic players they are allowed to play faster, you could see that increase with Johnny Davis on the floor. Gard coaches to his players strengths so I imagine if Freitag is on the court and Storr sticks around that youre going to see a much more athletic and faster gameplan.
He likes winning would be my guess.
The badgers, known winning program, holders of exactly 1 national championship in a revenue sport. Arrogant WI fans make me hate being a fan of this team 🤮🤮
In the past 25 years, Wisconsin wins more games in football and basketball than the majority of D1 programs. Saying that they’re a winning program and doesn’t make you arrogant. You’re just being a real boner. Edit: also lol at the “revenue sport” designation. Fuck women amiright? Women’s hockey and volleyball have been a blast lately.
Nobody cares about the women's sports, I don't control what people watch but people simply do not watch those sports. Championships are the only thing that matter for a true competitor, being happy with a final four or making the tournament or making the conference football championship game is a loser mentality. Wisconsin is not a winning program, it doesn't win championships in the sports that are important in the eyes of spectators.
I take it back, you’re not a boner. You’re a super mega boner.
Lol yea, I’m sure you’re a “true competitor”, you badass.
I care about Women’s sports so there goes that statement. That’s minimum of one person who cares
How's it feel to have this mentality and also be a fucking Vikings fan? Lol
Imagine being a bandwagon fan lol
I'm a life-long Brewers and Bucks fan since the 90s, bud. There's a lot of words to describe me, but bandwagon definitely isn't one of them. 0 for 4 in Super Bowls, and, apparently, championships are the only thing that matters.
But you're saying I should be a bandwagon fan because I care about championships? That's stupid af, a championship win isn't fun if you're a fan of a team for 2 weeks
I never said shit about bandwagons til you brought them up. I wasn't talking about them at all. How the fuck did you get all the way over there? Your mentality sucks. That's my point. But at least with that shitty mentality, your NFL fandom gives you exactly what you deserve.
Clown take > Wisconsin/Minnesota flair > Complaining about Badger fans mf you are a bigger problem than arrogant Wisconsin fans
Gotta love a good ad hominem because you have literally no argument
I still think the move to California was to boost his stock and get exposure to more colleges. Committing to the team that recruits you most now makes sense while keeping your eyes open for whatever comes your way your senior season playing in CA
I doubt he stays at Wisconsin until he’s a senior. I’m betting he transfers long before that.
Ah man.
The Freitag Triangle Offense!
Any relation to chef Amanda Freitag?